State firms hampered by complex bureaucracy

SEMARANG, Central Java (JP): State-owned enterprises will have difficulty facing free market competition due to sluggish performance caused by a complicated bureaucratic system, a prominent businessman said here Saturday.

"Complicated bureaucracy affects the performance of state enterprises, particularly in making decisions," Tanri Abeng, the president of Bakrie Group, told a seminar on management's challenges in Indonesia in the era of globalization.

Besides Tanri, the seminar, which was held by the Semarang- based Diponegoro University, also presented university economists Soewito and Augusty Fernand as speakers.

Tanri said that many managers of state enterprises complain about the structural obstacles that hamper their performances.

"We should not blame the state enterprises themselves because their assignment to monopolize certain sectors has caused some of them to operate inefficiently," he said.

Tanri, who is also president of Multi Bintang, a leading brewery, said that the introduction of cooperation systems, such as build, operate and own and build, operate and transfer will help increase the ability of state enterprises to face though competition. (har/04)